Skip to main content

Finding Jesus in Psalm 2

 


Everything in Psalm 2 can apply to Jesus and his life. In the end, his kingdom will be victorious. Verses 1-6 are threats from the enemies to the kingdom of God. Then, in verses 7-9, we hear the promises made to Jesus. The poem ends with the advice to submit to him.

  1. Why does the world rage, and the people plan in vain?
  2. The kings of the earth set themselves, and the rulers take counsel together, against the LORD, and against his anointed, saying, 
  3. "Let us break their bonds apart, and cast their cords away."
  4. He who sits in the heavens will laugh; the LORD will have them in derision.
  5. Then he will speak to them in his wrath, and terrify them with his fury.
  6. Yet I have set my king on my holy hill of Zion.
  7. I will announce the LORD's decision: He said, "You are my son. Today I have begotten you.
  8. Ask of me and I will give you the world for your inheritance, and the ends of the earth your possession.
  9. You will break them with a rod of iron; you will smash them in pieces like a potter's jar."
  10. So wise up, you kings; be warned, you judges.
  11. Serve the LORD with respect, and rejoice with trembling.
  12. Kiss the son unless he becomes angry, and you perish from the way, for his wrath is quickly kindled. Blessed are all who trust in him.
Verse 1: If we read this poem as applying to King David, we can translate this line as, "Why do the heathen rage . . ." Or we could replace the word "heathen" with Gentiles or nations. But if we're going to read this verse as applying to Jesus, "world" best conveys the idea that Jesus died for the sin of the world.

Verse 2: "The kings" are Herod and Pilate. Their power and political system is in conflict with Jesus' kingdom movement. Jesus' kingdom is not like the politics of this world. Jesus' message is counter-cultural. 

Verse 3: If we are going to follow Jesus, we have to pay attention to his words. Jesus invites us into a new way of life--a new way to be human. And the way to completely follow Jesus is by leaving behind the old worldly way of doing things and embrace the way of Jesus--a way that is gracious, generous, forgiving, and merciful.

Verse 4: When we say "Jesus is Lord," we are saying Jesus is king--not just of heaven, but of the whole world. In the end, everything will be subjected to him. In the end, everyone will bow before him.

Verse 6: Zion, metaphorically, can mean the church and all God's people.  Literally, Zion was a hill on the northern part of Jerusalem and there was a fort called "the city of David." Sometimes Zion is used to refer to the city of Jerusalem. The temple in Jerusalem was built on a hill. (Maybe this helps us with the phrase, "city on a hill.")

Verse 7: Doesn't this sound like what Jesus heard at his baptism? Also, this verse expresses the Jewish idea that the king is in a special relationship with God--God as Father and the king as a son.

Verse 8: The whole world is Jesus' inheritance because he is the Son of God and one day he will be Lord of all. 

Verse 9: Jesus weeps over the city of Jerusalem because they rejected his call for peace. A few years later, the city was destroyed by the Romans.

Verse 10: There's still time for us to embrace Jesus' teaching and his way of life.

Verse 11: Some translations use the word "fear" in this verse. But what that word is trying to express is a sense of the awesome and glorious majesty of God. We should rejoice at the grace we have received.

Verse 12: Kiss sounds strange, doesn't it? Among the eastern nations, it was a sign of subjection and adoration. If we're reading this poem as applying to Jesus, then the "son" is the Son of God. And if Jesus' way is the way of life--that means, if we are not following him then we are walking in the way of death and destruction. But if we do follow Jesus, we will find blessings.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Surprised by Mercy: Advent 2

  Matthew 3:1-12 My favorite way to start a sermon is with a song.  Let’s see if you know this one, it’s a little more recent than the one I used last Sunday. “Me and all my friends / We’re all misunderstood / They say we stand for nothing and / There’s no way we ever could / Now we see everything that’s going wrong / With the world and those who lead it / We just feel like we don’t have the means / To rise above and beat it / So we keep waiting / Waiting on the world to change.” Yes, you can add John Mayer to your Advent playlist because this season is all about waiting. John Mayer isn’t the only one waiting for the world to be different. John the Baptist says, “Prepare the way for the Lord’s coming!” He’s looking forward to something that has not happened yet. He’s looking forward with anticipation and excitement to the moment when God breaks onto the scene in the coming of Jesus. I remember when Rachel was pregnant with Ella, people would ask, “Are you ready?” And I would s...
Post a Comment
Read more

From the Bottom Up

 Let’s play a game of Show-and-tell. Can you guess what this is? It’s a Lego car of an Aston Martin. It’s James Bond’s car. Now, let’s do a bit of trivia. Do you know the actor who played James Bond in the most movies? Roger Moore. And before Roger Moore was James Bond, he in a TV show called The Saint . And the reason we’re talking about this is because there’s an episode in that series called “The Effete Angler” (effete means ineffective and not manly) and that episode has the right name. Because it has the absolute worst fishing scene. As you watch it, it is so obviously bogus that it’s funny. It’s funny because Roger Moore hooks a small marlin and ferociously cranks on a large trolling reel, which, at one point, he’s holding upside down. And we’re talking about fishing because Jesus says he’ll make the disciples “fishers of men.” Before Jesus says this, we hear that John the Baptist has been arrested. To make a long story short, he said some things about the governor that the ...
Post a Comment
Read more

Jesus, hating family, and a choice?

Rather than being in the pulpit yesterday, I was with my family at the beach. The girls had a fantastic time playing with their cousins. And, to make a confession, I was glad to see that I wouldn’t be preaching on one of Jesus’ most difficult teachings. But I couldn’t escape thinking about this text, and I think I finally discovered something beautiful in it.  Luke 14:25-33 NRSVue  "Now large crowds were traveling with him, and he turned and said to them, “Whoever comes to me and does not hate father and mother, wife and children, brothers and sisters, yes, and even life itself, cannot be my disciple. Whoever does not carry the cross and follow me cannot be my disciple. For which of you, intending to build a tower, does not first sit down and estimate the cost, to see whether he has enough to complete it? Otherwise, when he has laid a foundation and is not able to finish, all who see it will begin to ridicule him, saying, ‘This fellow began to build and was not able to finish....
Post a Comment
Read more